What's Fabulous: Salento Farm Garlic Powder

Local, No Fillers, And An Intense Roasted Flavor

What's Fabulous: Salento Farm Garlic Powder

Local, No Fillers, And An Intense Roasted Flavor

Salento Farm is a family farm in Shelton, Connecticut that grows garlic and eggplant. That's all. But in a case of quality besting variety, what they grow is fabulous. Their garlic and eggplant is sold at some of NYC's Greenmarkets, including the mother ship at Union Square on Saturdays and at West 79th Street in Manhattan on Sundays.

In addition to their several varieties of fresh eggplant and hard neck garlic, husband and wife farmers Dorothy DeMarco and Patrick Salvati make a superb selection of garlic and eggplant products, including pickled eggplant and garlic pesto.

But what really got my attention was their garlic powder. Made from the cloves of German Red Rocambole garlic, this powder is pure allicin. No fillers. No anti-caking agents. And it has a deep, complex, roasted flavor.

Like many home cooks I know, I had long ago given up using garlic powder. I thought of it as an old fashioned ingredient and preferred to use fresh garlic. But fresh garlic, even if grated or crushed with the side of my chef's knife and minced into a paste, can burn if it's spread on top of a loaf of bread or a pizza crust. It also can make a mess of a dry rub because, well, it's not dry.

This excellent garlic powder solves these problems -- with a fine, dry powder texture it adds intense garlic flavor produced from slow drying the local garlic, a process that also concentrates the flavor.

Salento Farm makes garlic powder plus versions with added rosemary, lemon, or chile powder. Cost is about $7.00 for 2 oz. sold in a plastic container that has a shaker top. There are small discounts if you buy more than one, plus you can buy the garlic powder by the one pound bag for $35, although that's a lot of garlic powder.